Book Description
While everything appears to be collapsing around us -- ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, the end of cheap oil, water shortages, global famine, wars -- we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children’s children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio’s web movie Global Warning,
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture’s blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem. Thom Hartmann’s comprehensive book, originally published in 1998, has become one of the fundamental handbooks of the environmental activist movement. Now, with fresh, updated material and a focus on political activism and its effect on corporate behavior,
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight helps us understand--and heal--our relationship to the world, to each other, and to our natural resources.
Book Description
This book tells the story of human evolution, the epic of Homo sapiens and its colorful precursors and relatives. The story begins in Africa, six to seven million years ago, and encompasses twenty known human species, of which Homo sapiens is the sole survivor. Illustrated with spectacular, three-dimensional scientific reconstructions portrayed in their natural habitat developed by a team of physical anthropologists at the American Museum of Natural History and in concert with experts from around the world, the book is both a guide to extinct human species and an astonishing hominid family photo album.
The Last Human presents a comprehensive account of each species with information on its emergence, chronology, geographic range, classification, physiology, lifestyle, habitat, environment, cultural achievements, co-existing species, and possible reasons for extinction. Also included are summaries of fossil discoveries, controversies, and publications. What emerges from the fossil story is a new understanding of Homo sapiens. No longer credible is the notion that our species is the end product of a single lineage, improved over generations by natural selection. Rather, the fossil record shows, we are a species with widely varied precursors, and our family tree is characterized by many branchings and repeated extinctions.
Exhibition information:
Photographs of most of the reconstructions that appear in this book will be featured in exhibits appearing in the new Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The opening of the Hall is planned for November 2006.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant and beautiful.......2007-09-06
Brilliant and beautiful, this book may help those who still don't grasp human evolution.
The artwork is spectacular and succeeds at bringing long-extinct hominids back from the dead.
A catalogue of cousins.......2007-08-02
There's a great deal of information available to the interested seeker of human origins. What has been lacking is a good descriptive overview and logical arrangement of the fossils found. Sawyer and Deak have responded to that need with this volume. Arranged in order of the oldest to the youngest of fossil specimens, the authors summarise which parts have been uncovered. In addition, they further descriptions of the likelihood of bipedalism, the known locations with assumed roaming areas, the associated wildlife and climate information. A special feature presents the way the "man-ape" probably appeared in its natural habitat.
The oldest fossils are very fragmentary and lead more to suggestions as to how they fit in the human lineage. Some clearly were successful creatures in their own right, but likely lie in a line that died out in time. Those aged pieces need further finds to establish their place - the chief reason the authors describe the probable range they inhabited. Later, more complete, fossils offer more information. The authors begin depicting fossil pieces in a restored placement with Australopithicus afarensis, the now-famous "Lucy" revealed by Don Johanson and his team in 1973. The authors provide an almost startling image of this hominid searching the savannah for her "lost daughter" - a very human characteristic. Laetoli's preserved footprints are described with the implications for how close to modern humans A. afarensis could stride.
After "Lucy's" time, about 3.5 million years ago, hominids developed into many and varied types. Lucy's fossils were found in Ethiopia, but a million years later a new species, with robust jaws and bearing a crested cranium appeared. Paranthropus aethiopicus had nutcracker jaws and was more sturdily built than Lucy. Yet, in the same time frame, Lucy's likely direct successors also emerged. One of these may have been the first to apply tools to aid food processing. Far away in what is now South Africa, other branches of Lucy's clan may have evolved as a result of earlier forebears migrating. Within another half-million years, examples of hominids in the direct lineage to today's humans appear, only a short distance from the supposed range of Lucy's wanderings. Their descendents launched new migrations traced by finds to the east of their original homelands.
The recent find near Dmanisi in Georgia provides a look at hominid life nearly 2 million years ago. Flaked stone, likely used for meat cutting, although no bones with cut marks have yet been revealed. A contemporary of the Georgian hominid wandered yet further east, typified by the skull and thigh bone excavated by Eugene Dubois in 1891. Homo habilis has been found in other sites, demonstrating its wandering habits. The most astonishing find outside our African origins is the small hominid, H. floresienses, discovered in a cave in Indonesia.
Ultimately, of course, the sole survivor of hominid evolution, Homo sapiens, outlasted its many competitors. The last major contender alongside our species was Home neanderthalis, ranging from today's Middle East into Western Europe. The authors' coverage of this species is thorough, but not extravagant. Moving to our species, Sawyer and Deak provide a good overview of the factors used in classifying the fossils without greatly extending their coverage in comparison to the other topics. To conclude the book, they describe the techniques used in making the representative images of the various hominid species discussed in the text. The key point is how they developed the faces in the images. These stand in stark contrast to some of the historical illustrations of "early man" done earlier.
This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in our ancestral past. Written in a straightforward manner, the authors give the available data, describing various speculations with care. They avoid dwelling on the many controversial questions that have plagued palaeoanthropology, and have no particular positions of their own to forward or defend. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Beautiful Pictorial Guide To Human Evolution For Those Who Aren't Scientists.......2007-07-05
"The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans" is a beautiful, illustrated guide to human evolution that's aimed for a scientifically literate general audience, without much of the terminology associated with paleoanthropology and other relevant aspects of physical anthropology. The principal authors, physical anthropologist Gary P. Sawyer and artist Viktor Deak, are the co-leaders of the Fossil Hominid Reconstruction and Research Team based at the American Museum of Natural History's Department of Anthropology, which has used the techniques of forensic anthropology to recreate these vivid illustrations of these extinct hominid species, often relying on the latest paleoanthropologic research (though, in a couple of instances, the authors observe that some artistic license was taken with the final appearance of several individuals). This book is essentially a visual companion to the dioramas and other related displays featured in the recently opened Spitzer Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History, in which the reconstructions made by Sawyer and Deak have taken their rigntful prominent places as among the most intriguing in this elegant hall devoted to human evolution. If nothing else, both this book and this new permanent exhibition, demonstrate more convincingly than ever, that human evolution has been an increasingly "tangled web" of species diversity, of which Homo Sapiens - humanity - is the sole surviving species. In addition to Sawyer's and Deak's contributions, there is eloquent writing too from Richard Milner, an anthropologist and writer who is affiliated with both the museum's anthropology department and Natural History Magazine. The book's text does an admirable job covering not only the paleontology of each species (e. g. geological and paleobiogeographic range, palecological reconstruction), but also delves into the probable cultural attributes of each of the twenty-two hominid species. Without question, this book is artistically - and scientifically - the latest word on human evolution aimed for a general audience; I strongly commend Yale University Press for trying to keep its production costs to a minimum to ensure a potentially large audience for it.
The Ultimate Extended Family Photo Album.......2007-07-03
"The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans" is a numinous, scientifically accurate, and artistically inspired depiction of human evolution - the ultimate extended family photo album and history - that follows the emergence of 22 human species from our primordial cradle in Africa six to seven million years ago to the dawn of Homo sapiens.
Unlike overly popularized accounts, "The Last Human" unflinchingly notes that Homo sapiens was not an inevitable outcome. Environment and contingency generated, and the fossil record documents, a hominid family tree sprouting many branches including forerunners, relatives, and extinctions. Photorealistic three-dimensional reconstructions portray hominids such as Australopithecus afarensis, Homo rhodesiensis, Homo erectus, and Homo neanderthalensis (among others) with startling and emotionally evocative intensity.
The accompanying text provides a comprehensive account of each species with information on its emergence, chronology, geographic range, classification, physiology, lifestyle, habitat, environment, cultural achievements, co-existing species, and possible reasons for extinction.
By masterfully merging scientific insight and artistic interpretation into a coherent and compelling whole "The Last Human" eloquently articulates how family history is everyone's heritage. This is a category-defining book that deserves to be widely read. It has my highest recommendation.
Also try Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade, The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors by Ann Gibbons, From Lucy to Language: Revised, Updated, and Expanded by Donald Johansen, or the Smithsonian Intimate Guide to Human Origins by Carl Zimmer.
A Hominid Family Photo Album.......2007-06-12
This book is the work of the artists and scientists of the Fossil Hominid Reconstruction and Research Team. Sawyer is the physical anthropologist and Deak is the paleoartist. They take all that is known about each species within the genera Australopithicus, Ardipithicus, and Homo, and synthesize that data into stunning, beautiful, and somewhat disturbing likenesses of individuals. Whether in forecasting the future or in reconstructing the past, the further you get from the present day, the more uncertainty is introduced. The authors admit to a blending of science and art, and they admit that the more flimsy the fossil record, the greater their artistic license. It is said that all of the known fossils of proto-humans would fit in the bed of a pickup truck, and it is with this implicit caveat in mind that you must evaluate the accuracy of the reconstructions. Also, only bone fossilizes, and this is a book about soft tissue, so there is considerable inductive logic implicit in the reconstructions. But, hey, it's a good start, and it's more than we had before Sawyer and Deak had their inspiration. My guess is that any future corrections to their work will likely appear immaterial to the scientifically literate general reader which is their target audience.
All of the paleoanthropological discoveries in the text of this elegant photo album of proto-humans have been published before, and the authors do not claim offer new theories or interpretations of hominid evolution. The reason you will want to read this book is to meet your family in the flesh, to see what your ancestors looked like. Take each reconstruction as a hypothesis; this is what they most likely looked like, based on our current interpretation of the fossil record.
This book's stunning illustrations will be certain to attract a fresh audience of paleoanthropological novices, and they will find, after their initial shock, that the authors present a rather comprehensive introductory course in the topic. It is a welcome addition to a bibliography of recent books aimed at the general reader, including "The Dawn of Human Culture", by Richard Klein, "From Lucy to Language," by Donald Johansen, "Extinct Humans," by Ian Tattersall and Jeffrey Schwartz, and "Becoming Human," by Ian Tattersal (see my Amazon reviews). This book doesn't require a vocabulary in craniodental morphology, and for the most part scientific terms are avoided. For instance, Sawyer uses the term "man-ape" instead of the term "hominid."
What emerges from these pages is the slow, but accelerating evolution of proto-humans, by a process of brutal natural selection, including many failed "branches" in the evolutionary tree, all but one ultimately leading to extinction, leaving only ourselves.
Book Description
The definitive history of the epic struggle for economic justice that became Martin Luther King Jr.'s last crusade.
Memphis in 1968 was ruled by a paternalistic "plantation mentality" embodied in its good-old-boy mayor, Henry Loeb. Wretched conditions, abusive white supervisors, poor education, and low wages locked most black workers into poverty. Then two sanitation workers were chewed up like garbage in the back of a faulty truck, igniting a public employee strike that brought to a boil long-simmering issues of racial injustice.
With novelistic drama and rich scholarly detail, Michael Honey brings to life the magnetic characters who clashed on the Memphis battlefield: stalwart black workers; fiery black ministers; volatile, young, black-power advocates; idealistic organizers and tough-talking unionists; the first black members of the Memphis city council; the white upper crust who sought to prevent change or conflagration; and, finally, the magisterial Martin Luther King Jr., undertaking a Poor People's Campaign at the crossroads of his life, vilified as a subversive, hounded by the FBI, and seeing in the working poor of Memphis his hopes for a better America. 16 pages of illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Recalling memories.......2007-07-13
As one who lived through the history recalled in this book,I found it excellent.It is great to read a book in which you personally knew all the people written about and recall all the events.Michael Honey has done an excelllent job.I highly recommend this book to all students of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King jr. Especially I recommend it to all residents of Memphis and Tennessee.May we never allow this history to repeat itself
A Measure of the Men.......2007-01-06
This might be the finest book written on Martin Luther King: it certainly is the best one that I have read about him. Honey is a splendid writer, with a style that I find more accessible than Taylor Branch's. No doubt that Branch has written the seminal history of King and his times, but his writing can become tedious due to too much detail and meandering sentences.
Honey is an award-winning historian who has written two previous excellent books that demonstrate his skill as an oral historian. The outstanding feature of this book is the numerous interviews he conducted with important figures, which keep the book always absorbing.
King receives much attention, but Honey shows that the Memphis strike was led by local workers and union officials who were fighting to escape the living hell of dangerous working conditions (the strike grew out of the deaths of two sanitation workers who were mangled in a malfunctioning garbage truck when they sought shelter from a rainstorm).
In addition to the stories about the local workers and organizers, King is portrayed as an important influence who was struggling with internal fighting among black civil rights groups, includng the NAACP, the Urban League, SCLC, and SNCC, the FBI, Lyndon Johnson, who was angered by King's anti-war proclamations, and most whites who thought King was moving too fast. Any reader who questions King's leadership and selflessness, needs to read this book to have those views dispelled.
Ultimately, the Memphis strike paved the way for labor improvements throughout the South.
This superb book should be considered for all major book prizes. For King scholars, it is essential and for all other informed readers, it is an excellent narrative of King and his times.
Book Description
For years Gary Smalley has helped millions of couples throughout North America enrich their relationships and deepen their bonds of love and companionship. In this extraordinary book, he shows you how to stay in love through all the stages of life. From first attraction to lifelong commitment, Gary's proven techniques and practical advice show you how to pursue and keep the love you want, and how to energize your relationship with enduring, passion-filled love.
In this book you'll learn how to:
- Understand and use love's best-kept secret
- Deal with the number one enemy of love
- Turn headaches into more love
- Increase your energy to keep loving
- Find the power to keep on loving your spouse
- Use normal conflicts as doorways to intimacy
- Read a woman's built-in marriage manual twelve ways
- Divorce-proof your marriage
- Develop the five vital signs of a healthy marriage
- Respond to your partner's number one request
- Find the powerful secret to great love
- Bring out the best in your maddening mate
With humor, empathy, and insight, Gary Smalley inspires you to fall in love with life and enjoy the deep satisfaction of a lifelong love. Down-to-earth examples, touching personal experiences, and inspiring spiritual principles will motivate you to bring about positive changes in your marriage-whether or not your mate is a willing participant. You'll learn how to tap resources at hand to help you follow through with your journey-and make your love last forever.
Customer Reviews:
Gary Smalley will help you!.......2007-06-04
Gary Smalley's books will help every couple who reads them.
For more help with your marriage, take a look at these also:
The Man of Her Dreams The Woman of His 2 - Livin' It and Lovin' It! (Volume 2)
and
The Man of Her Dreams The Woman of His!
Making Love Last Forever.......2007-03-15
This is an excellent and useful book for married couples or engaged couples or anyone who is planning on getting married.
Sensible, Succint, and worth the money........2003-06-29
Garey Smalley presents a grand way to preserve a marriage: Develop a spiritual relationship with your spouse that outlasts ephemeral physical desire. While this is not a new idea, Smalley's personal presentation keeps the reader interested and tuned in.
I can't help reading for twice.......2002-11-04
The book describes the nature character of man and woman and the feature of the christian marriage. It has test to evaluate personal character, and summary the right love on the back of each chapter. It is really a handbook for happy marriage.
A must for every couples' library.......2002-05-02
There are many books about Christian love and many books about how to make love last forever. I would suggest this book over most others. Gary is a brilliant and insightful writer. I suggest this book for any Christian (or non-Christian) to reinforce how to make love last forever.
Book Description
In Last Harvest, the award-winning author of Home and A Clearing in the Distance tells the compelling story of New Daleville, a brand-new residential subdivision in rural Pennsylvania. When Witold Rybczynski first heard about New Daleville, it was only a developer's idea, attached to ninety acres of cornfield an hour and a half west of Philadelphia. Over the course of five years, Rybczynski met everyone involved in the transformation of this land -- from the developers, to the community leaders whose approvals they needed, to the home builders and sewage experts and, ultimately, the first families who moved in.
Always eloquent and illuminating, Rybczynski looks at this "neotraditional" project, with its houses built close together to encourage a sense of intimacy and community, and explains the trends in American domestic architecture -- from where we place our kitchens and fences to why our bathrooms get larger every year.
As Publishers Weekly said, "Rybczynski provides historical and cultural perspective in a style reminiscent of Malcolm Gladwell, debunking the myth of urban sprawl and explaining American homeowners' preference for single-family dwellings. But Rybczynski also excels at 'the close-up,' John McPhee's method of reporting, where every interview reads like an intimate conversation, and a simple walk down neighborhood sidewalks can reveal a wealth of history."
Last Harvest is a charming must-read for anyone interested in where we live today -- and why -- by one of our most acclaimed and original cultural writers.
Customer Reviews:
Planning.......2007-08-27
A design profession relief from the more informative norm that planning, landscape architecture, urban design, and architecture are represented by. Rybczynski presents, in a very storyteller-like way, the process from visioning to implementation to construction, and finally, the homeowner's first thoughts of their new home. It is rare to read accounts of this genre that keep you focused on how things will actually work out in the end: especially when thinking of the arduous process behind the finalization of land development projects. Although most of the book was explained with tremendous success towards transmitting the sequences involved in building communities, it would have given the reader a better perspective to see how the process was transformed and the plans that made all of the discourse worth it in the end.
Nevertheless, a great account told in honest fashion, and backed by historic and cultural facts that have shaped land development in the US.
A 10-star book every housing consumer will relish.......2007-08-22
This is a really really important book that unlocks dozens of mysteries of why we end up in the homes that we come to occupy and how communities are created from cornfields. In other hands, this could have been a tedious tract on housing economics and construction techniques, but the author is a masterful storyteller who thoroughly entranced me with an account of the birth of one modest housing development in the Philadelphia exurbs. Rybczynski clearly grasps that the essence of great drama is constant conflict, and, from nearly the first page to the last, he portrays the endless conflicts that pervade the homebuilding business: there's land developer versus the anti-development townspeople; the developer's vision of designing a pioneering new community versus the practical concern that consumers feel safer buying traditional homes; buyer versus builder in striking the deal; buyer's emotions versus buyer's practicality in concluding a home-buying decision; and so many more mini-dramas involving the dozens of other participants in the development process. As a long-time real estate professional, I learned a great deal from this book and would recommend it to everyone in the industry and to anyone who ever intends to buy a home, suburban, exurban, or even urban. It's a treasure chest of lore about the history of housing, mostly American, but also housing abroad.
Illuminating.......2007-07-24
An informative trip through the local planning process that could have been that much more useful if illustrated with site plans and building elevations. Still highly recommended.
Interesting read.......2007-07-01
Was an interesting read. I am on a local Planning Board, and this book gave the developers perspective on a real estate development. Clustered development is still a hot topic, and many local boards are not fully aware of the benefits and pitfalls.
The book is thorough, although it doesn't always portay local governments in their best light. Most local boards are elected volunteers that are trying to help their local communities.
Overall, a good read, and well worth the time invested.
Excellent.......2007-06-28
Easy read that combines a little history and theory to help explain a personal story about designing and developing better neighborhoods. Rybczynski describes the rigorous process of developing communities that are not just streets and houses, but rather members of a complete community. I have recommended this book to many of my colleagues. It is a pleasure to read.
Amazon.com
Ecology and spirituality are deftly intertwined in this well-written discussion of how we can save and preserve life on earth. Vermont author Thom Hartman offers a highly persuasive argument for adopting the spiritual values of our ancient ancestors, which means living with a strong connection to the earth as well as the sun that nourishes us all. Nowadays, humans often perceive themselves as separate from nature and born to dominate it, says Hartman who lays out some frightening, albeit thorough, research on the destruction of the planet. But as the book progresses, he guides readers into a convincing and intelligent vision for reversing our destructive ways.
Mostly, we could all use an attitude adjustment. For example, he explains how native and tribal cultures often considered all forms of life to be as sacred as human life--an attitude that may be one of our best shots at planetary longevity. Hartman devotes his final section to "What the Average Person Can Do," including chapters titled, "Turn Off the TV," "The Modern-Day Tribe: Intentional Community," and "Reinventing Our Daily Lives and Rituals." --Gail Hudson
Book Description
A call to consciousness combining spirituality and ecology that offers hope for the future.
As the world's population explodes, cultures and species are wiped out, and we have now reached the halfway point of our supplies of oil, humans the world over are confronting difficult choices about how to create a future that works.
Thom Hartmann proposes that the only lasting solution to the crises we face is to re-learn the lessons our ancient ancestors knew -- those which allowed them to live sustainably for hundreds of thousands of years -- but which we've forgotten.
Hartmann shows how to find this new yet ancient way of seeing the world and the life on and in it, allowing us to touch that place where the survival of humanity may be found.
Customer Reviews:
Every human must know this information!.......2006-07-25
This is the most important book I have ever read. Thom does a good job in laymen's terms in laying everything out.
I read a review bashing this book, and it made my stomach turn. You just have your ignorant head in the sand! I have a five year-old who will be about 40, 45 when -- if we don't change our ways -- the oil, water and trees will run out. We're seeing signs of this already, for example, the levels of the water aquifers around the country. Do you think us lefties are making this up?? Check into it yourself! We can't eat or drink money.
Yes, turn off your TV, conserve energy, do everything you can now to prevent these scenerios from happening, AND... read this book and give copies to as many people as possible!
Change now or face the consequences.......2006-07-21
I kept reading about this book during my peak oil, climate change readings, and I finally ordered it and read it. What a thought provoking book! I had read Daniel Quinn's Ismael and Story of B, and this continues the thoughful line of thinking that our current civilization is not working and we had better change our course before the whole thing collapses from overpopulation, CO2 warming, and the loss of cheap energy. I plan on buying more copies and giving them to my college age nieces so they can read about the world they are about to inherit. Maybe they can help shape the change that will affect the rest of their lives. Thank you Thom Hartmann!
think for youself, question authority, save the world.......2004-04-25
This book is the most thought-provoking books I have read in a long time that sheds a lot of light on the current environmental and social conditions of the world. The first 2/3 of the book is very tough to get thru as the environmental outlook is very dim, however the last 1/3 is very optimistic and really makes you feel like you can make a difference (prayer is a great example).
The book covers topics like the differences between the Older culture (tribal society with much respect and a strong relationship with nature, e.g. plants and animals) and our Younger culture (the dominator city/state mindset that has been pulling the world down for thousands of years and is ultimately destined to fail).
After reading this book, you will have great respect for tribal societies like the Native Americans and the South American tribes and shamans. For example, women are treated as equals in Native American tribes and everyone takes care of everyone else in the tribe. They are spiritually rich, which we are spiritually poor in the so-called "first-world civilized" countries.
Hartmann is a very natural and free-flowing writer and this is one of those books you will read very quickly, it's that interesting and important. He does cite most of his sources for the facts presented in the book as well, which is respectable.
Buy it, read it, let your friends borrow and spread the world before it's too late. Turn off your TV and think more.
Remember the Long Count version of the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 AD. We're running out of time. Do it for the children.
Evolution or devolution? You decide........2004-04-05
I have seldom read a book that has so much to offer in terms of its premise and yet just doesn't deliver the goods--despite the glowing recommendation by the normally sane Neale Donald Walsch. The author,Thom Hartmann artfully blends useful statistics with arguments that are taken out of context and then rejiggers them into an eco-agenda that misses the big picture and purpose of human life. On page 174 we have the following gem:
"Tribes are characterized by five primary traits.
1. political independence
2. egalitarian structure
3. get their resources from renewable local sources
4. have a unique sense of their own identity
5. respect the identity of other tribes"
The author actually seems to believe that the tribal structure is preferable to our own democratic system. He has perhaps never visited Africa where tribes for centuries have looted and pillaged each other for slaves and wives and where today tribalism is the greatest form of racism in Africa.
The author's view is even more artfully captured by a quote he lists at the top of page 118 from Gore Vidal:"Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the (parasite) dies or both die."This is eco-gibberish at it finest. There is no concept here of humanity and the earth in partnership but only one of host and infection. And what my friends does one do with an infection? One kills it. Is this how one should think of the human race?
This is the fundamental problem with most eco-fairy tales. They talk about sustainable resources, they talk about conservation but what they really believe is that human life is a blot upon the earth and if we only would use condoms, commit infanticide on a large scale and practice sexual tolerance (read: promote homosexuality) can we relieve ourselves from the scourge of overpopulation. The author and other like minded figures simply cannot conceive of the human richness that is produced by families that have offspring that create businesses, invent new products and create wealth and improve life for millions--all they can think about is mankind as a consumer of the earth's scant resources, rather than as a partner in producing evolutionary and cultural wealth.
In this extraordinarily unbalanced book, which is subtitled waking up to personal and global transformation not one word is mentioned about sexual self restraint or the affect/effect of virtue and vice upon human thinking. Aside from some useful statistics on the vices of the Spanish colonization of the Americas, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight totally misses the point of human life. We can make the earth a better place by working in partnership with the existing ecosystems within which we exist but returning to tribalism, limited sustenance and primitive technology is nothing short of a call for human devolution.
The author is entirely mistaken in his assumption that previous civilizations have failed due to the rapid depletion of resources--those were contributing factors but the emerging picture that modern scholarship paints is that in almost in all instances, the ruling classes depleted their moral and intellectual capital via what could only be described as moral and spiritual vice, and devolved with frightening rapidity into violence, anarchy and ungovernability.
If the author would only use his own information to think more clearly about what he is really saying, he would come up with something extraordinarily interesting. For example, on page 217 he talks about the intensity of quantum waves that are in phase with each other as being the square of the sum of those waves. Thus if you have 1,000 people who believe in anything that has an actual quantum effect of 1000 squared, which yields the affect/effect as 1,000,000 or one million. Thus when you have 1,000 people who have erronious points of view, the error factor is multiplied enormously. Likewise the power for good is also squared. Apply this concept to virtue and vice and you see the enormous damage that is done by vice (particularly vices involving the lack of self-restraint or as the ancients described it, continence) and the enormous good that is done by virtue or excellence. So, rather than polarizing the issue by making our social ills attributable solely to the failure of corporations and national entities to embrace tribalism and "green" values, the author would be far better served by engaging and then enlarging the notion of what constitutes virtue and vice. Tribal and other green values are as much at risk as are corporate and democratic values unless the quantum and moral dynamics of virtue and vice are understand and applied from top to bottom in our society. By having such a map we might have a force multiplier for real social change that everybody would benefit from--no matter what their beliefs are.
Simply Awakening.......2004-01-17
Simply a must read for all Earthlings! The book begins with the following paragraph, ýIn the 24 hours since this time yesterday over 200,000 acres of rainforest have been destroyed in our world. Fully 13 million tons of toxic chemicals have been released into our environment. Over 45,000 people have dies of starvation, 38,000 of them children. And more than 130 plant or animal species have been drive to extinction by the action of humans. (ý) And all this just since yesterday.ý
A recommended read for environmentalist, and all those consumerist about to hit the mall this weekend. I would also make a plea that this is an absolute MUST read for each and every one of our children. This book provides well developed and presented information on the state of our environment. The breadth of information is presented in numerous ways including personal stories, analogies, newspaper articles, research papers, and is spotted with great humor, as well as alarming cold-hard facts.
This book is a significant body of work to awaken our lost-sense of Earthliness and re-awaken within us the abandoned traditions of our ancestors. This work pushes you to the brink of emotional and spiritual collapse, and then guides you back gently with inspirational thoughts and self-motivating ideas.
The book is divided in to three parts. Part 1 provides, very bluntly, undeniable and unambiguous information, facts, and support as to the nature of the irreparable damage that we humans, and specifically corporations, have inflicted upon the Earth. Part 2 provides a discussion on the anthropological aspects of various cultures and tribes, and how that particular view affected their attitude towards animals (including other ýhumansý) and the Earth itself. Part 3 is dedicated to discussing steps that each of us can take to impede the current trend of self-destruction and Earth-destruction.
I did not grant a review rating of 5 due to my perceived weakness of Part 3. I did not find Part 3 as compelling, informative, or well-defined as the previous two parts, and was left with an uncertainty of direct and immediate actions I could partake in. With that said however, I would state that Part 1, and Part 2 make this a must read for all environmentalist and anyone doubting that Global Warming is not a serious threat to national, economic, and environmental security.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Prepare to have some of your greatest fears laid bare in this collection of riveting, and often terrifying, "cautionary tales from the limits of human endurance." Based on interviews with accident survivors and the medical specialists who treat them, veteran outdoor writer Peter Stark offers mostly fictitious accounts (there is one based on a true historical incident) of people caught in life-threatening situations. In Last Breath, he thoroughly explores what happens to the human body and mind during drowning, a long fall, burial beneath an avalanche, hypothermia, dehydration, mountain sickness, the bends, malaria, scurvy, hyperthermia, and contact with a poisonous jellyfish. Stark packs enough historic and scientific information and page-turning suspense into each chapter to make them all fascinating and useful. And he answers some perplexing questions in the process, such as why those suffering from acute hypothermia often rip off their clothing in an effort to save themselves.
No, Stark does not have some unresolved death wish--he readily admits that he fears death. But he also understands that the fine line between life and death actually entices outdoor adventurers to risk everything for the chance to explore their own physical and mental limits. In fact, it is exactly this close proximity to death that makes the experience come alive for certain individuals with the overriding desire "to strip away the superfluous, to remove the protective boundaries between that thing you call a self and something larger." These are the stories of those who crossed the line. --Shawn Carkonen
Book Description
Sudden, extreme deaths have always fascinated us-- and now more than ever as athletes and travelers rise to the challenges of high-risk sports and journeys on the edge. In this spellbinding book, veteran travel and outdoor sports writer Peter Stark reenacts the dramas of what happens inside our bodies, our minds, and our souls when we push ourselves to the absolute limits of human endurance.
Combining the adrenaline high of extreme sports with the startling facts of physiological reality, Stark narrates a series of outdoor adventure stories in which thrill can cross the line to mortal peril. Each death or brush with death is at once a suspense story, a cautionary tale, and a medical thriller. Stark describes in unforgettable detail exactly what goes through the mind of a cross-country skier as his body temperature plummets-- apathy at ninety-one degrees, stupor at ninety. He puts us inside the body of a doomed kayaker tumbling helplessly underwater for two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes. He conjures up the physiology of a snowboarder frantically trying not to panic as he consumes the tiny pocket of air trapped around his face under thousands of pounds of snow.
These are among the dire situations that Stark transforms into harrowing accounts of how our bodies react to trauma, how reflexes and instinct compel us to fight back, and how, why, and when we let go of our will to live.
In an increasingly tamed and homogenized world, risk is not only a means of escape but a path to spirituality. As Peter Stark writes, "You must try to understand death intimately and prepare yourself for death in order to live a full and satisfying life." In this fascinating, informative book, Stark reveals exactly what we’re getting ourselves into when we choose to live-- and die-- at the extremes of endurance.
Customer Reviews:
Compelling in the Extreme!.......2006-12-04
I read this book in nearly its entirety on a flight home from NY. What a compelling can't-put-down read! I HIGHLY recommend it! This book contains fictionalized tales of real life experiences that humans have gotten themselves into when pushing themselves to the limits in the dangerous outdoors. There are chapters on hypothermia, heat stroke, dehydration, falling, drowning, high altitude sickness, avalanche, scurvy (a particularly nasty chapter), predators, malaria, and the bends. It's one of those extremely rare books that really make you appreciate the comfort of sitting in those cramped, poorly designed aircraft chairs.
I couldn't stop reading.......2006-02-02
This is not a book I would have normally bought. I picked it up at a Bookseller's Convention where publishers were giving away books. As a lover of books, I couldn't turn this or a couple dozen others, down. But this book is fascinating!
Last Breath is a collection of short stories fictionalizing the events--the why, how and results--when man pits himself, sometimes unwittingly, against the elements. For instance, the first story titled: As Freezing Persons Recollect the Snow: Hypothermia, follows a young man's journey from the moment he makes the wrong decision that exposes him to a snow storm in the Colorado Mountain to. . . Well, I'm not going to tell you the end. Each story is different, but each intriguing. Stark goes into detail on what happens in someone's mind and body as they face deadly element. Call me ghoulish, but I couldn't stop reading.
Patricia Lewin
Author of BLIND RUN, OUT OF REACH, & OUT OF TIME
Amazing work.......2004-02-03
This book is one of the best I've read in a long time. To the first reviewer, he clearly didn't understand this book, as is shown by the following reviews.
The author is brilliant, after the chapter on thirst I went to the fridge and drank two sodas right away. The writing is intelligent, you don't get the feeling he's trying to dumb it down to the lowest common denominator. There is just enough medical information to make you understand what is going on physically, but not overwhelm you.
I highly, highly suggest you read this book.
My Favorite Non-Fiction.......2003-12-02
I first read a chapter of this book in paddler magazine and the way Peter Stark described the drowning of a kayaker (Chapter 2: A River of One's Own) in detail right down to the amounts of oxygen remaining in his lungs at various periods of time. The entire book is written as en ewcellent blend of fact and fiction and while the scenarios are not true they are composites of true stories, and some of Stark's imagination, which gives them a realism that pure fiction can't match. The facts Stark gives are sound, he obviously did his homework and he even gives a bibliography so you can check out some of his sources. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get outside.
Outstanding Book.......2003-01-31
This book just blew me away. A wonderful blend of fact with realistic, fictional stories to make the points really come across. I couldn't put the book down until I finished it straight through the first time I read it. It's so well written that I've been able to enjoy rereading it several times.
Book Description
The Great War has ended-but there's no peace for battle-hardened Hal Kailas. In his bleak, ravaged homeland, even his marriage to Lady Khiri no longer brings solace. And Hal's worst fears are coming to pass as the dragonmasters-and the magnificent beasts they once flew-are cast off like relics of a misbegotten age. Old enemies have savagely returned. With his loyal comrades, Hal must turn back this terrible scourge that threatens man and beast alike in one last, ultimate battle- whose outcome is far from certain.
Book Description
You can save your relationship!
Did you know that over 80% of all married couples separate for two months or longer at some time during their marriage?
You can get back together-but it won't happen by just wishing things were "Even if right now you're the only one making the effort to salvage your relationship, you can take the essential first steps that will make it possible for you to reconcile with your partner. As Drs. Bilecki and Goetz show, many couples have faced the challenges your relationship is now facing and reconciled for good. Learn how they did it-in Getting Back Together.
Customer Reviews:
Letting Go Is Healthy.......2006-03-16
Your book is quite misleading.
Yes, I agree that some relationships end prematurely.
However, others end because it is time for them to end.
I just lost a really good friend because of your book and books similar to yours. For the past month, my ex-boyfriend read this book and had tried to get back together with me. This book gave him false hope. It was painful watching him struggle with our breakup. However, it was more difficult to see him sincerely believe that we could be romantically involved again.
It took introspection, time and maturity on both our parts to become friends after the breakup. Now he wants us to be lovers again.
Your book doesn't cover whether the relationship was healthy in the first place until chapter 8.
Our friendship was healthier than our romantic relationship. And now it is gone. Now he is in even more distraught and has asked us to stop being friends altogether.
A Little Too Optimistic.......2004-12-13
I just got out of a relationship of 5 months. My partner told me he was falling in love with me, that he thought I could be "the one", and various other things we all love to hear, such as the whole let's buy the house with the white picket fence and the dog thing and live happily ever after. Naive little me has been wanting to hear this for years, being that I had been in and out of several unhealthy relationships throughout the course of my life and this was all I had ever wanted. Well needless to say he ended up giving me the whole "We're just two different people" excuse and dumped me out of the blue recently. I was distraut. I was in shock, after all he had built up in my head, he was turning around and leaving me with no clear cut examples as to why he had made that decision. Well I was confused and really wanted to figure things out so that I could hopefully get him back. So I was at my local bookstore and I saw this title and decided to pick it up. What I didn't like about the book is that it seemed almost too optomistic. What I mean by that is the authors never touched on whether the relationship is worth salvaging or how to tell if you're just wasting your time and making a fool of yourself by chasing after someone who just might not want to be with you no matter how much you work on yourself or decide to compromise. I felt like it builds your hopes up into thinking that if you follow the strategies, you WILL get you're partner back someday. Well needless to say I'm trying the strategies and my phone ain't ringin'! So I guess I need to put this book down and find one on how to heal a broken heart. ;-(
Great advice if separated and desiring reconciliation..........2004-11-24
Speaking from past personal experience, this was an excellent self-help book for me when I was newly separated. It gives basic but excellent advice on how to deal with your estranged partner, pamper and take care of yourself, etc. The main lesson here is to remain detached but cordial to your ex while working to improve yourself.
I believe that the advice in this book helped me immensely in redefining the relationship with my husband that led to our reconciliation. But even if you don't succeed, you'll walk away from your relationship a better person with your head held high and your dignity intact. Either way, it's a win-win situation.
Help in a chaotic time..........2003-08-20
This book will give you guidance, give you a general plan when you feel directionless. There is no set playbook in getting one's spouse back, but this book will point you towards some things you need to consider. In the end, your particular answers are within yourself, not any book. I highly recommend reading it and visiting relationship resource dot com.
Turn your eyes inward.......2002-11-03
This book helps couples turn their eyes inward and focus on the self...redirect the focus on basic relationship techniques rather than "just getting back with the person". I found this book helpful to identify needs and understand that needs will change, and that each person in the relationship will need to be informed of the change of needs....
Book Description
Praise For Results That Last
"Quint Studer is a superb communicator with a deep belief in the power of relationships. His informal tone, sense of humor, and real-world stories bring his business principles to life. Results That Last has a vital, optimistic quality that will keep readers re-reading long after other leadership books have been relegated to a dark corner of the shelf."
—Nido Qubein, author of How to Get Anything You Want; President, High Point University; Chairman, Great Harvest Bread Company; and founder, National Speakers Association Foundation
"Results That Last is long overdue and fills a big gap in effective business management. There are legions of books that show us the way to achieve successful results in business, but very few that teach us how to institutionalize success. In reality, achieving success is the easy part. The real challenge is to achieve results that last. Quint Studer not only proves it is possible to hardwire a culture for lasting results, but lays out a simple, logical, and effective way to do so. Anyone who wants to make success a habit needs to read this book."
—Bob MacDonald, former CEO, Allianz Life of North America and author of Beat the System: 11 Secrets to Building an Entrepreneurial Culture in a Bureaucratic World
"I have always been fascinated by how the various parts of an organization work together to achieve strategic objectives. In Results That Last, Quint Studer explores the complex subject of performance improvement in a fresh, readable, and easy-to-grasp way. By standardizing certain business practices and leader behaviors, any company in any field can create an environment that allows it to achieve and sustain long-term results."
—David F. Giannetto, coauthor of The Performance Power Grid: The Proven Method to Create and Sustain Superior Organizational Performance
Books:
- The Paper Bag Princess (Classic Munsch)
- The Secret
- The Sight (Warriors: Power of Three, Book 1)
- The Soul of a Lion: The Life of Dietrich Von Hildebrand
- The Spirit of Black Hawk: A Mystery of Africans and Indians
- The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 3)
- The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion
- The Wizard and the Warrior: Leading with Passion and Power
- The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World
- To Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for a New Brazil
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
- Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith
- Daughter of the Blood: The Black Jewels Trilogy
- Farnham's Freehold
- Henri Cartier-Bresson: Scrapbook
- Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
- History: Fiction or Science
- Dr. Seuss from Then to Now
- Designing With Nature: The Ecological Basis for Architectural Design
- Economic Community of West African States Investment and Business Guide
General
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
The Prophet's Way: A Guide to Living in the Now
What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy
Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class - And What We Can Do about It (BK Currents)
The Greatest Spiritual Secret of the Century
Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights
